


The Jim and Bones Show: A Christmas Interlude

by Space_AgeScribe



Series: The Jim and Bones Show [5]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Holidays, Jim will be loved by the McCoys whether he wants it or not, Team as Family, happy holidays!, holiday fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-11 20:57:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9022427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Space_AgeScribe/pseuds/Space_AgeScribe
Summary: Jim Kirk insisted that he was fine with spending Christmas drinking beer on his couch and ordering in Chinese. To Leonard McCoy, that answer was not acceptable. Part of the Jim & Bones Show series. Modern AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written a holiday fic or fluff before, so you're getting a 2 for 1 deal. As always, this started off as just a little story but immediately turned into another beast. I'll try to get the second part posted as soon as possible. In the meantime, happy holidays and happy new year to you, wherever in the world you might be!

Leonard McCoy shivered as an icy blast of wind blew down the empty street. He pulled his coat more tightly around him, to little avail. It was late, and winter was most definitely here.

 

Once again he peered through the foggy window. The lights were off near the window, but a warm glow was visible farther back in the room. He could make out a number of shapes gathered, many of whom were wearing brightly colored clothing. Garlands and twinkling lights decorated the walls. Bursts of joyful laughter could be heard whenever the wind gusts momentarily quieted.

 

No one could see him standing here, all alone in the wind and the cold. He’d already tried waving, but the revelers probably couldn’t see him outside in the darkness. He was invisible to them.

 

Apparently inaudible, too, since his first phone call went unanswered. He was beginning to despair when a laughing voice answered.

 

“Leonard!” the woman said, sounding excited to hear from him. He knew he could always count on this woman.

 

“Nyota, darlin’,” Leonard said, relieved to discover that he was still on the right plane of existence. “I’m out front and it’s freezing. Could someone let me in?”

 

“On it,” she said in a determined voice before the line went dead. Moments later, he could hear the click of the lock on the front door of the Enterprise restaurant. A blast of warm air drew him in immediately.

 

“Leonard!” Nyota said, throwing her arms wide and giving him a big hug. He had to smile. He hadn’t seen her this drunk before.

 

“Merry Christmas, darlin’,” he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

 

She grabbed his hand to lead him toward the party by the bar, but quickly turned back. “Your hands are freezing!” she said, grabbing his other hand as well and holding them in her warmer ones.

 

“Well, it is the middle of winter,” he pointed out. He would have gone on to point out how difficult winter was for a southern boy like him, but he was interrupted by another shout.

 

“BONES!” Jim said, flying over with a drink in one hand and flinging out his other arm to give Leonard a hug, nearly taking out another party-goer in the process.

 

“Jim,” Leonard said with fond exasperation. He was enveloped in a hug by the restaurant’s owner, which was awkward since Nyota still had a firm hold on his hands. He was trapped.

 

“Bonesy, I was afraid you weren’t going to make it!” Jim said. Then he stepped back. “Wait, you’re still in your scrubs.”

 

Leonard shrugged. “I know, but I got held up at the hospital and didn’t want to be any later than I already am.”

 

Jim threw his arm around Leonard’s shoulders and led him toward the bar. “Never fear, there’s plenty to warm you up here.” Then he giggled at his own clever poetry.

 

Tonight was the annual Christmas party for the staff of Jim’s restaurant and the crew of his television show. They’d had to wait until the restaurant had closed for the night before bringing out h’oerderves, egg nog and mulled wine and raiding the bar. Leonard had been on the late shift at the hospital, so the schedule had suited him just fine.

 

It was still a week until Christmas. However, this was one of the few opportunities to get everyone together to celebrate. Soon, Uhura would be heading to Africa to visit family, Spock was heading to Washington D.C., where his father was a diplomat, and Scotty would be jetting off home to Scotland. Even Pavel Chekov, the energetic young volunteer at the hospital, was heading home to Russia before starting his next semester of medical school. Jim had run into the young genius at the hospital a couple of times, and Bones had suggested that if Jim was going to drop off lunch at the hospital for him, perhaps he could pack something for Chekov, as well. Lord knows the kid probably didn’t have the time or skills to cook decent meals. One taste of Jim’s borscht and he had a new follower. Now Chekov stood at the end of the bar talking to Sulu and gesturing wildly.

 

“Hey there, handsome. What can I get for you?” Gaila asked seductively from behind the bar. Was there anyone here besides Spock who wasn’t completely hammered?

 

“The usual, darlin’,” he told her. In moments, a bourbon appeared in front of him. He sniffed it – not one he knew. He took a sip and made some obscene sounds. It was amazing.

 

“I know, right?” Jim asked from beside him. “Chekov was actually the person who suggested we stock that bourbon.”  


Leonard looked at the young Russian at the far end of the bar. “Huh, I always took him for a vodka guy.”

 

Jim turned to fully face Leonard and held up his drink. Leonard mirrored his move and their glasses clinked. “Merry Christmas, Bones.”

 

“Merry Christmas, Jim.”

 

~oOoOoOoOo~

 

With Leonard’s arrival, the party finally hit its stride. Scotty came up with a string of tinsel that he tried to drape over Leonard’s shoulders but ended up caught around his head. At one point, Gaila gave him a pat on the backside, which, he discovered a few minutes later when he tried to sit down, had been used to stick a bow from the Secret Santa exchange onto him.

 

Finally, around 2:30 a.m. the party-goers started wilting. Most of them had worked a full day before the party, and with the exception of Chekov, they were no longer spring chickens. Some people were bundled into taxis. Spock dropped off Chekov and Sulu before he and Nyota made their way home.

 

“Jim, I’ll drive you and some others home.” Leonard, for his part, had seen how the party was developing and decided to just enjoy one glass of bourbon and then stick with sparkling water for the rest of the night.

 

“Aww, Bones,” Jim said, practically dangling by the arm around Leonard’s shoulder. “You just want to drive my car.”

 

“I just want to make sure you get home safely, and that damn car of yours is a magnet for car thieves,” Leonard grumbled. Okay, so maybe he wanted to drive the red Mustang. Just a little.

 

“See,” Jim said to someone behind Leonard. “Bonesy is just a big, squishy teddy bear.”

 

There was a giggle and then he was also hugged from the other side by Gaila. Leonard rolled his eyes and sighed. He looked up and noticed that they were standing together under the mistletoe. He prayed to whichever god might be listening that these two were too drunk to notice.

 

As usual, the gods hated Leonard McCoy, and he got two slobbery kisses for his trouble. Typical.

 

~oOoOoOoOo~

 

“They’re flappy paddles,” Jim giggled, turning around and talking to Gaila and Scotty in the back seat. Apparently his car’s system for shifting was hilarious, and all three dissolved into laughter.

 

Leonard sighed and once again considered all of the choices that had led to this ridiculous moment in his life.

 

A guy could do worse.

 

~oOoOoOoOo~

 

Jim shushed him as Leonard unlocked the door into Jim’s apartment. He wasn’t really clear why Jim felt this necessary since he was the one making all of the noise.

 

Leonard dropped Jim’s keys onto the table by the door and shrugged off his coat. “I’m gonna crash here tonight, and tomorrow your hung-over ass can drive me back to the restaurant to pick up my car,” he said with his usual compassion.

 

“Bonesy, I really do mean it when I say you’re the best,” Jim said, once again throwing his arm around Leonard’s shoulders. Leonard had never been the most touchy-feely of people, but that had all gone out the window once he’d met James T. Kirk.

 

Eventually, he managed to get Jim to focus enough to provide him with a spare set of clothing so he wouldn’t have to sleep in his scrubs and a pillow and blankets. One of the few smart things Jim had ever done in his life (aside from culinary school, the restaurant, and the TV show, of course) was to buy a couch that was actually long enough to comfortably suit his tall frame.

 

“You know, you can always sleep in my bed,” Jim said, failing to keep a serious face as he attempted to seduce (read: annoy) Leonard one last time for the evening.

 

“Good night, Jim,” Leonard said, amused. He gave Jim a shove onto the bed and made his way back out into the living room. It was entirely possible that Jim would sleep where he landed on the bed.

 

Feeling a moment of holiday charity, Leonard filled a large plastic glass with water and took it in to Jim. The chef was struggling with his shoe laces.

 

“Here, drink some of this,” Leonard said, shoving the glass into Jim’s hands. He squatted down and untied Jim’s shoes before the younger man made an even bigger mess of them.

 

After taking a big swig, Jim managed to land the tumbler on his bedside table on the second try. “Thanks, Bonesy,” he said, patting Leonard on the head as the doctor got the second shoe off. Leonard rolled his eyes and went to the bathroom to grab a bottle of ibuprofen. Jim was going to need it in the morning.

 

“’night,” Jim sing-songed drowsily once Leonard had (totally not) tucked him in.

 

“Goodnight, kid,” Leonard said fondly as he headed back to the living room to settle in for the night.

 

~oOoOoOoOo~

 

Unsurprisingly, Leonard was the first one up the next morning. He took a shower and cooked himself breakfast as quietly as possible. Cooking in Jim’s kitchen, with its professional amenities and endless ingredients, was an adventure. Eventually, he managed to make himself some oatmeal and fruit salad.

 

Leonard had a short shift later in the day, so he was just beginning to contemplate waking the beast when he heard whimpering and grumbling from upstairs, followed by something dropping. Always on the lookout for some good entertainment, Leonard headed upstairs.

 

“’Good mornin’, sunshine!” he said cheerfully, folding his arms over his chest and leaning against the doorway of Jim’s room.

 

The man himself had buried his face. “Is it, though?” came the mumbled reply.

 

“It’s good to see Sleeping Beauty awaken at last,” Leonard said.

 

“Ugh, Bones, not so loud,” Jim moaned.

 

Leonard sighed. “Some people just can’t hold their liquor.”

 

“I hate you right now,” Jim said, still buried under the covers.

 

Leonard finally took pity on his friend. “Here, drink this and take these,” he said, handing the water and tablets to Jim once the chef finally emerged, bleary-eyed, from his cocoon.

 

“Thanks,” Jim croaked, finishing off the water.

 

“Please, go take a shower,” Leonard said. “Since I’m such a nice guy, I’ll make up some of my special hang-over cure while you’re in there.”

 

“Mr. Sensitive,” Jim muttered.

 

“You know it,” Leonard said as he turned to make his way back to the kitchen. “No goin’ back to sleep, either.”

 

He heard Jim drag himself into the bathroom and the shower eventually start. Leonard had a glass waiting for Jim once the man emerged looking clean and vaguely more alive. After Leonard had gotten his magical cure and some oatmeal into Jim, they set off for the restaurant so Leonard could pick up his car.

 

“Ugh, I used to be able to drink so much and never get a hang-over,” Jim moaned while they waited at a traffic light.

 

“Sorry to break it to ya, but that’s usually how it works as you get older,” Leonard said, enjoying not being hungover immensely.

 

“This sucks,” Jim said, sulking. In the passenger seat, Leonard tried, without success, to keep from snickering.

 

“Do you have to work over Christmas?” Leonard asked as they neared Enterprise.

 

“Not really,” Jim said. “We’re doing lunch on Christmas Eve, but we’re closed after that until the 27th. My staff need to have time with their families over the holidays.”

 

 _Typical_ , Leonard thought, _that Jim would worry so much about the needs of others but not himself_.

 

“So what about you?” Leonard asked. “What are you up to?”

 

Jim laughed uneasily. “Oh, I was thinking about hanging out on the couch, have a few beers, maybe order in some Chinese.” It was hard to tell whether Jim was hungover or simply sad.

 

Normally, Leonard would be all for Jim actually taking a break, but not over Christmas. “Come on over to my place. My mom and Jo will be in town. We’d love to have you.”

 

“Thanks, Bones, but I don’t want to get in the way of your plans. I’m actually looking forward to chilling out for a couple of days.”

 

That answer was unacceptable, but Leonard bit his tongue for the moment. There was no way that James T. Kirk was spending Christmas alone on his watch. He’d pull out the big guns when the time came.

 TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in finishing off this story. Here's what happened:  
> Me: "Hey Real Life, could I just have a couple of hours on the computer to finish this off?"  
> Real Life: "Nope."  
> Me: "Not even a little bit..."  
> Real Life: "Nope."  
> True story. Enjoy!

_Christmas Eve Day_

Booze? Check. Ingredients for breakfast tomorrow and cash for dinner tonight? Check. Fuzzy sleep pants with Cookie Monster on them? Check.

 Jim sighed and settled back onto his couch, mindlessly flipping through TV programs. Nothing captured his attention today, not even the cooking channels.

 Christmas had never been particularly full of fond memories for Jim. On the occasions his mother was home, the holiday could be tolerable, if subdued, but when she was away, it hardly felt like there was anything to celebrate. Jim had been happy enough to spend as much of the holidays as possible with neighbors or playing outside.

As an adult, he had finally discovered how the rest of the world celebrated. At culinary school, there were always holiday parties to attend and gift exchanges with friends. He was happy to bake and cook for his friends, first for practice as a student and later as a professional. Nyota always made sure he was surrounded by holiday décor, music, and general coziness. It was from her that he’d gotten his own Christmas spirit, which he, in turn, had passed on to Bones by making him buy a small Christmas tree. Mrs. McCoy had been a willing partner in crime, immediately sending her son a box of ornaments from his and Joanna’s childhoods.

Jim smiled at that memory. The voicemail and text messages that Bones had sent to him after he saw the cookbook that Jim left under that tree were still saved on his phone as a masterclass in the art of ranting.

The chef glanced around his living room again, sighing into the silent room. He had all the makings of a good holiday, but the apartment felt quiet. He felt empty.

A little while later, he was perusing the take-away menus scattered across his coffee table when his phone began blaring “Walking on Sunshine”. That was the latest song to signal that it was Bones calling. 

“Bones!” he answered, pouring all the enthusiasm he could into his voice.

“Hey, Jim,” the older man drawled. “What are you up to?”

“Oh, you know. Chillin’ on my couch. It’s amazing,” Jim said.

Leonard didn’t sound convinced. “Right. So how about coming over?” 

“Nah,” Jim said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I don’t want to intrude on your holiday.” Ever since he had managed to bring Joanna to town to surprise Bones for his birthday, Bones’ ex-wife had been more willing to let Joanna spend time with her father. Jim suspected it had to do with the girl’s growing powers of persuasion now that the carrot of visiting her father had been dangled in front of her. Since Bones was on-call today, Eleanor McCoy had brought her granddaughter to him. This was the first time Bones had spent Christmas outside of Georgia with his little girl.

The doctor managed to hold back a sigh. Whoever had taught Jim that he was an imposition on others (and Leonard had strong suspicions about who those people might be) deserved a punch in the face. Instead, he said, “Just hold on a second.”

Suddenly, Jim started to panic. _Bones wouldn’t…_

 He had. “Hi, Uncle Jim!” came the sweet voice of an 11-year-old girl.

  _No, Jim couldn’t allow himself to give in so easily_ … “Hi, Joanna-banana! How are you?”

 Jo ignored his question to ask her own. “Are you coming over for Christmas with us, Uncle Jim?”

  _Oh, no. His situation was becoming precarious._

 And then…“Pleeeease, Uncle Jim?”

  _There was no defense in the world strong enough to guard against this. He was thoroughly defeated. Game over._

 Jim sighed. “All right, Jo. I’ll be there in a little while.” 

He had to hold the phone away from his ear at the cheer. Jo added a quick, “Dad says to bring an overnight bag. You can sleep here. You’re in charge of watching for Santa.”

Jim said his good-byes and hung up. He hadn’t stood a chance against Bones’ daughter. He acted like such an upstanding citizen, but Bones could play dirty when he needed to.

~oOoOoOoOo~

 “You know, Bones, you play dirty,” Jim said when Leonard opened his front door, still wearing his scrubs from a quick trip to the hospital to check on a patient.

Leonard was unrepentant. “Wonder where I picked that up from?”

Jim had just stepped inside when he was nearly bowled over by a hug from Joanna. Once he had finished greeting her, he allowed himself to be fussed over by Bones’ mom.

“Whoa, is that your car, Uncle Jim?” Jo asked in amazement as she peeked out the window at the red Mustang parked out in the driveway.

"Sure is," Jim said with a grin.

Eleanor looked out over her granddaughter’s head. “That’s a beautiful car, Jim.”

“See, Bones?” Jim said gleefully as he turned to where his friend stood rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Ladies love this car.” He turned back toward his admiring fans. “Would you like a ride in it?”

Joanna jumped up and down and squealed in delight, while Eleanor hid her excitement better. 

“Why don’t you make yourself useful and go pick up some more sage for tomorrow’s stuffing?” Leonard suggested. He couldn’t let Jim off so easily.

Jo ran outside without her coat, while Eleanor paused long enough to grab warm clothing for the both of them. Jim dropped his overnight bag at Bones’ feet and slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bones. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Leonard grumbled loud enough for the chef to hear him as he left the house.

After closing the door behind Jim (“Damn infant!”), Leonard headed upstairs for a shower so Christmas wouldn’t smell like disinfectant before beginning to prepare dinner.

~oOoOoOoOo~

 Within minutes of returning from their errand (via a very circuitous route in order to get a better feel for the Mustang), everyone had gathered in the kitchen. As expected, the making of a McCoy holiday dinner consisted of lots of talking and arguing, valiant attempts by Bones to avoid swearing, and more laughter than Jim had ever seen in his own family.

“Here, slice this into chunks for the stuffing, would ya?” Leonard said as he placed a cutting board and loaf of bread in front of Jim. He didn’t even wait for an answer before turning back to his other tasks.

Jim bit back a chuckle. Bones didn’t even seem to notice that he had assigned a professional chef the most mundane task in the kitchen. To be honest, he loved it. People always either wanted him to cook for them or were self-conscious about cooking in front of him, afraid of doing something wrong. This was like being a celebrity who was able to go out for a cup of coffee unrecognized.

After an early evening meal of Southern food, the adults cleaned up the mess while Joanna danced around whining that she wanted to open presents. “Patience,” Eleanor told her as she rinsed another plate. Jim thought she was moving a bit slow, but didn’t want to say anything.

“She’s doing it on purpose,” Leonard told Jim quietly as Joanna chattered away at her grandmother. “My mama’s own grandmother always insisted on cleaning up everything before they could open presents. Since she had to suffer, she makes the later generations suffer, too. When I was growing up, the more you nagged her, the slower she worked.”

Jim tried not to laugh as he pictured a young Bones biting his tongue while itching to tear into a pile of Christmas gifts. He’d seen the childhood photos when they had visited Eleanor in Georgia, so it wasn’t hard to picture.

Finally, after what seemed like an agonizingly long time, they all gathered around the full-size Christmas tree that Bones had bought once he found out Jo was coming to spend the holidays. There was a surprisingly large pile of gifts underneath.

“Joanna, dear, why don’t you give Jim his gift for tonight,” Eleanor instructed her granddaughter.

“We usually open one or two gifts tonight and leave most of them for tomorrow,” Leonard explained.

Joanna handed Jim a rectangular box wrapped in red paper with white snowflakes. The others received similar boxes.

Jim saw it was from Eleanor. Seeing the others start opening their gifts, Jim also tore in.

“Seriously, how old are you?” Leonard grumbled as he watched Jim tear gleefully at the paper. 

“Not my fault you’re a grumpy grinch,” Jim replied, not bothering to look over at where Leonard took his time, carefully tearing the tape along each seam.

“Jim, grinches are grumpy by definition,” Leonard said.

“So are Boneses,” Jim shot back. Even Spock wouldn’t be able to argue with that logic.

Jim pulled open the box to reveal a flannel pajama set decorated with bacon and eggs. These were officially the best pajamas he’d ever owned. 

Apparently, this was another McCoy family tradition, because Bones had received pajamas with dancing penguins on them, while Eleanor’s had polar bears and Joanna’s unicorns with flowing rainbow manes.

Jim swallowed a lump in his throat.

~oOoOoOoOo~

“Uncle Jim.”

Jim mumbled something and rolled over.

“Uncle Jim,” came the whisper again. This time, Jim jerked awake.

“Waaa’ time’s it?” he mumbled.

A wide-awake Joanna shrugged her shoulder. “Early. But there are more presents!”

Now Jim was awake.

He stumbled out of Bones’ office, where he had bedded down for the night, behind Joanna, yawning and scrubbing a hand through his hair. Eleanor stood by the door to the living room, her hair down and a bemused expression on her face.

“’Morning,” Jim said through another yawn.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Bones’ mom said. She got a devilish look on her face. “You know, we still have one missing.”

Jim and Joanna got identical mischievous looks on their faces and took off toward the stairs. Amused, Eleanor followed behind them at a more dignified pace.

Jim quietly opened the door to Bones’ bedroom and peeked in. The man himself was sacked out with his back to them, breathing softly. Opening the door further, Jim beckoned Jo forward and they quietly approached the bed.

Silently, Jim counted down from three with his fingers. At zero, both he and Jo took a flying leap onto the bed. “Merry Christmas, Daddy!” “Bones, why are you sleeping? There are presents!”

Leonard jerked awake and sat up, but to his credit managed not to punch anyone in surprise. It took him a few moments to get his bearings before he sighed and seemed to resign himself to his fate. He scrubbed a hand over his face and grunted something that sounded vaguely like “Mornin’”.

“I’ve got the coffee going downstairs,” Eleanor supplied helpfully, trying not to laugh as Jo and Jim continued to bounce on the bed while her son struggled to regain consciousness.

Leonard yawned again, still not moving but not fighting to get the covers back.

“Bones, that is the most amazing case of bedhead I’ve ever seen,” Jim stated.

Bones mumbled something unintelligible, but Jim was pretty sure it wasn’t fit for small ears. He and Jo kept bouncing on the bed until Bones finally relented and went searching for a sweatshirt.

“Presents, Bones!” Jim said again once Leonard had settled on the couch and been handed a cup of coffee by his mother.

“Seriously, Jim, how old are you?” the doctor grumbled.

“Okay, Grinchy, this one’s for you,” Jim said, handing over a package from under the tree.

Jim hadn’t really expected much in the way of gifts for Christmas. Of course, he’d bought some for all of the McCoys and had already left them with Bones with the intention of spending Christmas alone, so he was surprised to see the pile next to him once he and Jo had finished doling out the loot.

Bones sat back on the couch in his penguin pajama pants and Ol’ Miss sweatshirt, hair still sticking up in all directions and a cup of coffee clutched in his hand. He was ignoring his own pile of gifts in favor of watching Jo tear into hers with a soft smile on his face. After knowing the doctor for as long as he had, Jim realized he was one of the few people to see Bones this relaxed and happy.

Something loosened in his chest as he realized that Bones and Eleanor’s continued persistence that Jim was family wasn’t just lip-service. With that, Jim began tearing into his own gifts, causing almost as much carnage as Joanna.

Eleanor had knit for Jim a blue sweater that matched his eyes, as well as bought him another shirt and some socks. Joanna had given him an apron reading “Hot Stuff Coming Through” (he was pretty sure she didn’t fully understand the slogan) and drawn a pretty decent picture of Jim cooking on the set of his TV show, although for some reason she had drawn him wearing a yellow shirt. That would go up on the wall of his office at the restaurant. Bones, knowing Jim’s secret passion for reading, had gotten him a gift certificate to a local bookstore and a couple pounds of Jim’s favorite coffee beans, which he hadn’t had time to stock up on lately. There was also a set of measuring cups that could be assembled into R2-D2. Those were definitely finding a home on Jim’s kitchen counter.

Eventually Bones tore his eyes away from his daughter to open his own presents. He had also gotten a sweater, shirt, and socks from his mother, as well as underwear. “Really, Mama?” he drawled, eyebrow raised, as he opened that last gift.

“It’s useful,” Eleanor pointed out without regret. At that moment, Jim was incredibly glad she’d left that out of his pile of gifts.

Eleanor had loved the cook-book and high-end iron skillet that Jim had given her (“I can buy this stuff wholesale,” he had shrugged when she had lifted her eyebrows upon seeing the brand name on the bottom), and Joanna loved the junior-sized cook set that Jim had put together for her, plus a copy of his cookbook signed especially for her. “Now I can help Grandma and Daddy cook Christmas dinner!” she declared.

Eventually the floor was cleared of wrapping paper so everyone could walk to the kitchen. Even though no one asked, Jim immediately started whipping together a brunch, something that had become a special meal for him and Bones. He put Joanna to work on a few simple tasks but insisted that Bones and Eleanor take a break for a change. They sat at the breakfast bar sipping more coffee while Jim worked with quick, efficient movements.

“It is amazing to watch you work, dear,” Eleanor told him as he deftly chopped some vegetables for the eggs in seconds.

Jim smiled self-consciously but kept his eyes on his work. “It’s what I’m good at and I like doing it.”

“Well, I, for one, don’t mind eating the results,” Bones said, breaking the moment when he saw Jim getting uncomfortable with the praise.

The rest of the day mainly consisted mainly of eating, drinking warm winter drinks, and preparing said foods. Before they knew it, darkness had fallen again.

“Might as well stay here one more night unless you really want to get home,” Bones told him.

On the one hand, the idea of being back in his own space was nice. However, the thought of his apartment empty while it was still a holiday made Jim sad for some reason. This was the best holiday ever, and he didn’t want it to end.

“Sure, I’ll stay over,” he said.

“I just need to check my e-mail before you go to bed,” Bones told him.

“Yeah, of course. Be my guest,” Jim told him, settling back into the couch to watch Jo and Eleanor play a new board game Jo had received.

A moment later, the silence was broken by a loud, “JIM!”  

Both Jim and Joanna burst out laughing. Jim could just imagine how hard Bones was trying not to swear at him right now. The night before, before he went to bed, Jim and Joanna had stuck their faces up close to the webcam in Bones’ computer and set the resulting photo as Bones’ desktop.

“Merry Christmas, Bones!” Jim called from the living room into the office. “We love you, too!”

FIN.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what Bones' miracle hangover cure is, and right now he's not sharing.


End file.
